Where did the matter of the universe come from?
Did it appear in some mysterious way? Has the universe always existed?
Is the universe infinite?
Do astronomers know the basic answers of WHY this universe is — WHERE the laws governing it came from?
WHEN you look up into the starry heavens on a clear night you can see about 6,000 to 7,000 stars with the naked eye.
Where did those stars come from?
WHY are they in existence? WHO or WHAT regulates those stars — and the entire universe?
The universe is an AWESOME entity.
Most astronomers accept what is thought to be a proven observation — that the universe is expanding. When one realizes the distances astronomers tell us of, it's frankly bewildering. The human mind must struggle to grasp its size.
Spanning Cosmic Distances
Have you ever wondered just how large are even SHORT distances in the universe? Or how large the earth is in comparison to other astral bodies? How large, for example, is the earth in comparison to the SUN — which itself is just a second-rate star? Let an astronomer explain:
"Suppose we make a scale model where the distance of the earth to the sun, ninety-three million miles, is just under one-quarter of an inch.
"Now take a DIME [or a sixpence] out of your purse.
"On the scale of our model the orbits of the four inner planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars fit comfortably on this coin with the orbit of Mars represented by the circumference.
"The orbit of Neptune, the outermost large planet, will be fourteen inches across.
"And on the scale of our model where will the nearest star be? Exactly ONE MILE AWAY from the dime. This is the closest star. The center of our star system or galaxy would be over SIX THOUSAND MILES [or the air distance from Los Angeles, California to London, England] from the dime and the millions of other galaxies very much further away." (This Universe of Space, Peter Millman, pages 15, 16. All emphases ours throughout article)
Journey to the Planets
When we travel to work or to shop, we usually judge distance in terms of HOW LONG it takes us to get to a certain place.
Let's plan out a few journeys. We'll make a cosmic trip to the sun — and beyond!
We climb into a jet plane. Soon we're winging along at the speed of sound — 750 miles per hour. How long would it take for us to reach the sun?
FOURTEEN YEARS!
We increase the speed to THREE TIMES that of sound — or 2250 miles per hour. Our destination is Saturn or Neptune: But we'd better forget about going. We'll NEVER make it — because it would take us over a HUNDRED YEARS to get there.
We try a new means of travel.
According to scientific experimentation, light travels approximately 186,000 miles per second in our solar system. To find out the distance light travels in one year, we multiply:
186,000 x 60 seconds x 60 minutes x 24 hours x 365 days.
That means light — at least in our solar system — travels 5,865,696,000000 miles per year — approximately SIX TRILLION!
Astronomers, of course, must assume that the laws of physics, as observed in our solar system, hold true for all parts of the universe. They must assume that the speed of light is constant across space and time, and that no unobserved physical phenomena ever enter the picture.
But are astronomers measuring these immense distances correctly? Or are factors involved which they don't understand?
Will astronomers once again need to seriously revise cosmic distances as they did in 1952 — a revision which one author labeled about as serious to astronomy as the STOCK MARKET CRASH was to the world economy in 1929!
Now, we're ready for a new kind of ride — a space ship that roars through space at the speed of light. (Of course, it's totally imaginary!)
"Instead of fourteen years, it would take us only eight minutes to reach the sun.
"In a half hour we would arrive at Jupiter, in one hour at Saturn, and at the end of five hours we would pass the outermost planet, Pluto" (Design of the Universe, Fritz Kahn, page 132).
Still a long time — at that speed!
On to the Stars
But the sun and the planets are our virtual "neighbors." In cosmic terms, the distance to the sun and planets are merely INCHES and less.
Our solar system, for example, is merely one tiny part of the Milky Way galaxy. The sun, astronomers claim, is around 30,000 light years from the CENTER of the Milky Way — if your 'mind can conceive of such immense distances.
Our sun is but a dwarf star among a spiral of 100,000,000,000 other stars of varying size — all in our galaxy. This Milky Way galaxy — 100,000 light years in diameter and 20,000 light years thick at the center — is only one of BILLIONS in the universe.
But let's continue our 186,000 miles-per-second journey through space. We want to travel far beyond the planets to some of the "nearer" stars.
"We settle down, unpack our books, open our typewriter and begin a report on the solar system. We have dinner, we play cards, we grow tired at our usual bedtime and go to sleep.
"The next morning we look out the window again. Alpha Centauri is not a bit brighter . . . we begin to worry. 'How long will it take us to reach Alpha Centauri?" Four and a half years' is the reply.
"Four and a half years — travelling at a speed of 186,000 miles per second — will bring us only to the NEAREST star! 'And when do we get to Sirius, the brightest of our neighbors?" 'Eight and a half years from now.' 'And Alderbaran? 'Fifty-five years.'
"We cannot believe our ears. Fifty-five years!
"No hope of arriving there and coming back to tell about it.
"But Rigel is much brighter and seems to be closer. So we question him about Rigel. The man with the timetable in his hand answers us sternly: 'Rigel? You won't get there. WE will get there in FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE YEARS:'. . . and still we would not have left the immediate neighborhood of our own village" (Design of the Universe, Fritz Kahn, page 132, 133).
There are, declare astronomers, millions of stars, separated by many light years, in OUR own galaxy alone. And our galaxy is only one among an estimated TEN BILLION! Each galaxy is itself thought to be separated by a million light years.
As one author stated, an ant determined to crawl across the United States has more chance of accomplishing its task than man has to even BEGIN to cross the universe!
It's no wonder Job cried out, speaking of God, "Who alone spreadeth out the heavens . . . who makes Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades" (Job 9:4-9).
At the Outer Limits
Astronomers have been shocked to realize that man is approaching the outer limits of his ability to measure the universe.
"Out there" is a vast region to which man cannot penetrate.
One author put it aptly, when he admitted:
"Our knowledge is confined not only in space but also in time. Techniques of radio astronomy are developing and they will soon reach out to this BOUNDARY WALL, but without hope of going beyond it." (The Limits of Science, Pierre Rousseau, page 176, 177)
But what remains on the "other side"?
Astronomy remains silent.
"We have reached the unknown, our terminus," he continues. "We sought the end of the universe and IT HAS NONE. Our most powerful techniques leave us face to face with the unexplored void . . . we do not know what lies beyond the frontier of the perceptible universe" (page 180).
Yes, man's mind is limited!
He is reaching the barrier of his observable universe.
The Basic Questions
How does this universe — as infinite as it appears to be — operate on mysteriously lawful principles?
WHERE did the matter in this "infinite" universe come from? WHO or WHAT was responsible for bringing this universe into existence? Or was it "always" here? WHERE is the universe headed?
These are the basic questions. Yet, science has NO ANSWER!
You've just read a few facts concerning the size of the universe. It's staggering, awesome — even what little we can grasp of its size. But size is just one factor.
Rotations of astral bodies and their interrelationships can be MATHEMATICALLY predicted. There are LAWS that guide and direct the functioning of this universe.
Could this all have evolved? Did it always exist? Did matter mysteriously come out of "nothing"?
These are basic questions you NEED to know the answers to. And believe it or not — you CAN FIND the answers.
We humans are normally inquisitive. The whole impetus of scientific research — especially in the fields of geology, astronomy, biology and many, many of their more special studies — is that of a thirst for KNOWLEDGE.
Basically, it is a desire to understand the ORIGIN of things.
We want to know WHY, from our earliest moments. We want to know how a certain household machine works. We want to know WHO MADE certain things. Little children begin asking WHERE THEY CAME FROM, much to the flustered embarrassment of many youthful parents.
Perhaps answering these more simple questions is not so difficult.
And yet — even that childish wonderment — taken back to the earliest beginnings of the human race, deals with the ORIGIN OF MANKIND.
But here we find a great paradox!
Man, in all his sciences, must finally admit he DOES NOT KNOW, by himself, where all this vast universe, with the solar system and life on this earth, came from.
So he invents lame excuses.
Why? Because he is driven by a MOTIVE.